That was fun. I read that Patrick is participating in the Winter Soltice event through Friday and wondered how he was going to perform in Japan Nationals Gala? I knew he was there last year but hard to believ he's doing this now.

The host has interviewed various famous Chinese skaters including Michelle Kwan. Comparing the different sport systems between China and Canada, she tells of how Chinese athletes are completely taken care of, with their coaches acting like doting parents, such that a Chinese swimmer once told her that, without his coach's reminder, he forgot to bring his goggles to an important competition! She wraps up the interview expressing that though a Canadian athlete has to go through so much more to train and achieve but in the end they may be more experienced and prepared for their career and for life.

The host has interviewed various famous Chinese skaters including Michelle Kwan. Comparing the different sport systems between China and Canada, she tells of how Chinese athletes are completely taken care of, with their coaches acting like doting parents, such that a Chinese swimmer once told her that, without his coach's reminder, he forgot to bring his goggles to an important competition! She wraps up the interview expressing that though a Canadian athlete has to go through so much more to train and achieve but in the end they may be more experienced and prepared for their career and for life.

That's a very interesting take, SF. I suspect that parents generally have more of a role in their children's life in the West, and that mitigates the role of the coach. Also, I imagine that the coach in China is probably in some way a publicly sponsored official, because the athletic program is a national program, which gives him/her more power and more possibility of efficiency as well.

Do you know, how is the subsidy or grant money for each athlete handled? Does it come to the coach? Is there another official who handles it? I can't imagine that it comes to the athletes themselves, or even their parents. Whereas in the West, except for some subsidies from nonprofit organizations or benefactors, the money to finance a skating career comes from the athletes or their families.

By Chinese tradition, teachers are respected like parents and they take on parental roles in guiding their students in their lives. So are martial arts teachers and these days coaches. Common names for teachers include "father" ("fu" in "shifu") and "mother" ("mu" in "shimu") in them. Today's athletes start so young so the coaches take on even more of a nuturing/doting role.

Lucinda Ruh could tell you about her Chinese coach, whom she calls her savior, a father figure, and long time best friend, in this interview.

eta. In the West, coaches are often regarded as employees. In Patrick's case, Mr. Colson was like a grandfather to him and was treated like a member of the family who were by his bed when he died.

Chan is only the third figure skater to win the Conacher Award — named after the all-rounder voted Canada's male athlete of the half-century in 1950 — since it was first handed out in 1932. Kurt Browning claimed the honour in 1990 and '91, and Elvis Stojko in 1994.

Another round of applause and congratulations! It's so good for him and for figure skating to be recognized.

I hope he doesn't win too big in Vegas as he might stop skating and start gambling for a living, as he joked earlier.

Reminds me of the times I was given coupons by a gambler who had too many so I had some sumptuous meals in a casino. I walked around afterwards to watch how people paid for my dinner, refusing to put a even quarter in a slot machine. I explained to my companion the odds were against me and I was told I already got my fix in the stock markets! (Well, educated and calculated risks are not the same as rigged odds against you.)